GBI probes bottle bombs in Fort Oglethorpe

GBI probes bottle bombs in Fort Oglethorpe

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will examine fragments of two plastic bottle bombs found May 9 in a Fort Oglethorpe neighborhood.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will examine fragments...

Photo by
WRCB-TV Channel 3
/Times Free Press.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will examine fragments of two plastic bottle bombs found May 9 in a Fort Oglethorpe neighborhood.

Greg Ramey, special agent in charge of the agency's 12-county Region 1 office in Calhoun, said the GBI will process the plastic shards that Fort Oglethorpe police collected in the 100 block of Van Cleve Street about half a mile away from the police station.

The bombs consisted of two 2-liter plastic soda bottles in which chemicals were mixed with aluminum foil.

Such homemade explosives go by a variety of names. One is "The Works," for an inexpensive toilet bowl cleaner of that name that reacts with aluminum foil and causes the bottles to explode loudly. The blast releases hydrochloric acid and foil stripped of the protective wax it's coated with -- both of which can burn skin.

The Internet abounds with videos showing such bombs being set off for fun.

But police warn that these "overpressure devices" are unpredictable and can burn, maim and even blind an unsuspecting person who picks one up before it detonates -- or the person making the bomb.